


By My Side

by Rhysanoodle



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-07 01:52:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19075072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhysanoodle/pseuds/Rhysanoodle
Summary: Elain Archeron has become smitten with her sister's fiance's best friend, but an encounter at Feyre's engagement party threatens to tear their budding connection apart.Requested by @julesherondalex on Tumblr





	By My Side

It was growing late in the evening, Rhys and Feyre’s engagement party coming to a close when Elain saw them. Azriel and some woman she didn’t recognize emerging from a bedroom, the unknown woman smoothing out the front of her dress. **  
**

Elain had merely been looking for a bathroom so she could touch up her lipstick, away from all the noise of the party, winding her way through the second story of Rhys’s opulent townhome when they appeared, completely unwanted and out of the blue.

The second she caught his eyes, there was no denying what had been going on in that room, the alarm and fear on full display, even as they smoothed over only a heartbeat later.

Elain made a split second decision and darted into the nearest door, not caring what—or who—she may find inside.

Thankfully, this actually was a restroom, so she bolted the door before sinking to the floor, her intentions momentarily forgotten as her head fell between her knees and the tears began to flow.

She had thought that Azriel was one of the good ones. After a string of messy breakups with men who had all taken her for granted, culminating in her breaking off an engagement three months ago with a cheating slimeball, Elain had sworn off of dating.

That was until she had met Az—Rhys’s best friend and best man in their upcoming wedding. Ever since the announcement of their engagement last month, Azriel and Elain had been in cahoots, meeting to plan this party and also help the besotted affianced as they rushed to plan a wedding in the near future, as she was the maid of honor.

They wanted all the frills and ceremony, just with the added impatience to finally be married after all the trials they had faced together, now that their lives were peaceful and Feyre’s ex was officially behind bars and out of the picture.

Azriel was quiet and calculating, with a reserved but dry sense of humor, but even more importantly, the moments they spent together were some of the most comfortable Elain had ever had in her life.

She was used to men who sidled their way up to her, using her for her good looks and body before dumping her as soon as they got bored and realized that she wanted _more_ from a relationship.

With Az, she could relax and take a breath of fresh air for the first time in a long while, reveling in the silence together as they stamped and addressed invitations and called their way through long lists of vendors, performing interviews.

The other night, they had even gotten dinner together after-the-fact and gotten to know each other a little better. She had seen him grin like a fool at her jokes—a smile which she knew was incredibly rare given his troubled past—and felt like maybe there was some connection between them which ran deeper than the surface she so frequently got stuck on with others.

If she were being honest, she would admit that when she got dressed tonight, she had donned the floor length cobalt gown which dipped dangerously low in the back with the intention of catching his eye with a color he so often chose to wear himself. She would admit that she had swept her hair over one shoulder to draw his eye to said bare back. She would admit that she had chosen a scent of perfume which he had inadvertently complimented the other evening.

But none of that mattered to her anymore because clearly he had just hooked up with that beauty in the spare bedroom—or already had a girlfriend he had neglected to inform her of.

And how could she blame him? They were only newly acquainted friends, and this other woman was a knockout with her riotously curly hair half up, those piercing seafoam eyes which glowed in contrast to her deep amethyst evening gown, and her rich, flawless brown skin.

She had just allowed herself to be played for the fool again, and it shouldn’t have surprised her. She was going to die alone and miserable because she could never find anyone who could live up to her standards.

She didn’t know know long she sat in that position, trying to control her hitched breathing as she fought the tears which were continuing to fall, before she heard a cautious knock at the door.

She didn’t bother to answer. There were other bathrooms downstairs, and any of the tipsy partygoers would eventually give up and make their way back down. Another knock. Now she was growing frustrated with whoever was behind that panel of wood who couldn’t just leave her alone.

“ _Elain._ ” Azriel’s voice was pleading with her from the other side, but she saw no reason to give him the time of day.

“Please come talk to me, Elain. You’ve been hiding in there for half an hour, and I’m getting worried.”

She indignantly rose, only so she could crack the door open a fraction and pointedly tell him, “Some would find that extremely creepy, Azriel. I don’t need your help. You can leave now.” His mere presence was threatening to send her over the edge.

“Can we talk? _Please_.”

Perhaps it was the desperation in his voice. Perhaps it was because her annoyance was brimming over and she thought it best to just get this conversation over with before they had even begun that she nodded in agreement, but added, “I just want to go home.”

“I’ll grab your coat, and then we can slip out the back door. I’ll walk you.”

Well, at least their conversation would be private, and Elain would have a convenient escape the nearer she got to her own apartment, merely a ten minute walk away.

She slipped down the staircase, through a living room full of strangers, and finally through a fairly empty kitchen into their backyard. She didn’t mind not running into Feyre on the way out. She could always text her sister later, and she didn’t want to ruin their big night.

When Az caught up to her, he slipped the heavy coat onto her arms before opening the gate for her, and they emerged into the whirl of motion which was downtown Velaris on a Saturday night.

They walked in silence for a minute before she said, “I’m sorry I overreacted. I’m not sure what I thought was going on between us, but clearly I was mistaken. I’m still willing to help you with the wedding planning, but I think it’s best if we keep it professional.”

“That’s not what I want at all, Elain. I thought it was fairly obvious that I like you. Mother above. We spend so much time together and you’re so incredible that it’s impossible _not_ to fall for you.”

“I can’t do this again, Az. I told myself I was done dating, and I almost made another mistake to add to the huge bundle of them. I just broke off an engagement because Graysen was cheating on me. I’m not going back down that road.”

“It’s not what it looked like, Elain. I promise I—”

“Well it certainly looked like you had just slept with that woman. Not that I blame you, because she’s gorgeous,” Elain snapped back, picking up her speed to put some distance between the two of them.

“Soliel is _Morrigan’s_ girlfriend. She came in town for the party and is staying in the townhouse. I accidentally spilled a glass of wine on her tonight and was helping her clean up in their room because it was all my fault. That’s all.”

“Wait … So nothing ...?”

“I haven’t been with anyone in a long time, and I haven’t wanted to be with anyone but you since we met.” They were finally beginning to close in upon her apartment, and Elain was suddenly resenting the fact that their time together would be cut short so soon. “All I knew about you before we met was that you were going through a rough breakup, but sullen though you seemed on that day, by the end of the evening, you were laughing as we sipped on wine and watched _Cutthroat Kitchen_ reruns while going through endless lists of their wedding ideas.

“In that moment, I thought that you were the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid my eyes on, and I looked forward to spending even more time with you, volunteering to take on more of the wedding planning just as an excuse for us to hang out. I was fairly certain you felt the same, but I stayed steady, reminding myself that you needed some time to heal from your broken heart.

“But tonight ...”—His glazed eyes roved over her as she turned to face him head-on, now that they had arrived at her building—“It was an exercise in control to keep my hands off of you.”

She vaguely recalled how tense Az had seemed all evening, his hands constantly shoved into his pockets when one of them wasn’t holding a wine glass.

“I’ve been fighting this for too long, and since I know that you feel the same …” He tilted her chin up until their eyes were locked and she could see the depth of warmth in his molten amber. “I’m going to kiss you now.”

And he did not disappoint.

As his lips locked with her own, Elain’s limbs ignited. The tenderness with which his lips meshed with hers, mixed with the urgency of his tongue as it probed at her entrance in question completely undid her.

His hand cupped the back of her neck, and Elain couldn’t help the shivers which racked her body as she drowned in the taste of him, unable to tell up from down as his other hand slid up the back of her coat and his callouses scraped up her back.

This was heaven, and completely unlike any other experience she’d had before. Kissing had always just been reserved for foreplay in her past relationships, yet this felt blissful and unhurried and sensational. As if the two of them could connect like this all night and both be contented. It made her heart soar out of her chest, and quite honestly, she didn’t want it back, didn’t feel the need to cage it in for fear of it breaking.

Finally he broke off from her, only far enough to look her over and glean her reaction, which could only have been an involuntary grin, with smeared lipstick, her cheeks flushing to match its shade. After a moment, he sighed, smiling and lowered her forehead to hers before letting out an involuntary laugh. “I’m falling hard for you, El. And I’m so glad I’m not the only one.”

Indeed, Elain never wanted the night to end, but … It didn’t have to.

“Stay with me,” she murmured.

Shock flashed across his expression, there and gone in an instant. “Are you sure?”

“Beyond sure. I’ve fallen for you too, Az. And I’m not ready to say goodbye tonight.”

“Then you won’t have to.”

For the first time since they’d known each other, Elain saw pure and utter bliss in his eyes, a radiating grin which she knew was just for her. So she took his hand in her own and led him through the doors and up the stairs into her room and her heart. She hoped he never left.


End file.
